Kevin Martin rink hopes to take advantage of lessons learned during Brier run

Norm Cowley, Edmonton Journal03.10.2013

Kevin Martin salutes the crowd after Alberta defeated Ontario, but ultimately missed the playoffs at the Tim Hortons 2013 Brier at Rexall Place in Edmonton on March 8, 2013.Bruce Edwards
/ Edmonton Journal

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EDMONTON - Somehow, Kevin Martin’s Alberta rink of John Morris, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert came out of the Tim Hortons Brier feeling like a winner, even if it didn’t make the playoffs.

Martin, a four-time Canadian men’s curling champion, overcame a terrible 1-4 start by winning his last six round-robin games, including exciting 6-5 victories over Newfoundland’s Brad Gushue and Ontario’s Glenn Howard in an electric atmosphere at Rexall Place on Friday.

It was Howard’s first loss of the competition and also ended a 20-game Brier winning streak for the defending champions dating back to last year’s round robin at Saskatoon.

“We did the best we could,” Martin said after Alberta finished with a 7-4 record that left his team a win short of the four-team playoffs.

It was only the second time in 12 Briers that Martin hasn’t qualified for the playoffs.

“As disappointing as it is, that was exciting for us and exciting for the crowd,” Kennedy said after the final round-robin game against Howard. “There’s another Brier next year, so it’s not the end of the world.

“Even though we’re knocked out, that was great. The crowd had a great time. Howard’s team had a great time.

“It sucks, but I’m proud of this team and how we responded from 1-4. I think we’ve got to be pretty proud of ourselves. We’ll hold our heads up high and try to have a better start next time.”

Kennedy said it was important for the Martin team to not give up after shocking everyone, themselves included, by losing four of the first five games and “at least leave here on a good positive note. We’ve managed to do that.”

At one point during the past week, media members were questioning the future of the team, which has already qualified for the 2013 Olympic Trials at Winnipeg in December.

But a funny thing happened on the way to Martin’s demise. He never fell out of favour with the crowd, and his team rallied to shoot a collective 90.8 per cent while winning its final six games to come oh, so close to sneaking into the playoffs.

Only Howard’s crew, which was the top-shooting team during the round robin at 90 per cent, was better over the last six games.

Martin’s team, which still has to play two World Curling Tour events at Grande Prairie and Victoria plus the Player’s Championship at Toronto in April, has reason to feel good about its Brier finish after an inconsistent season.

“Adversity is what breeds championships,” said Kennedy, who finished second among the seconds at 90 per cent despite shooting 76 in the first game. “If we can face what we faced this week in our hometown and come out with a winning record, which we have, it shows we can overcome tough times.”

Kennedy pointed out that the Martin rink lost the 2009 world championship final to Scotland’s David Murdoch — a game Kennedy says they “never should have lost” — and came out later that year to win the Olympic Trials.

“You learn more from the losses in weeks like this than you do from the wins,” he continued. “Hopefully, it’ll help us grow as curlers and maybe even a little bit as people.

“We’ve been so fortunate over the years in a lot of our big events, we haven’t faced adversity like this. If we can respond to it in a positive way, only good things will come out of it. We’ve never faced a round robin at 1-4 in a Brier or worlds or Olympic Trials. That’s brand new to us. So we’ve had to turn into a little bit more of grinders instead of front-runners and that’s good. It rounds out our team a little bit more.”

Martin, who started out shooting 78, 78, 80, 68 and 81, was red-hot during the last four games (95, 91, 93 and 88) to finish fourth among skips while the up-and-down Morris was fifth among thirds at 86 and Hebert tied for fourth among leads at 91.

Kennedy said the Martin rink will sit down for a debriefing session after the Brier to figure out what it needs to do better.

One area the players will have to discuss is “the importance of just being prepared for the start of the week in all aspects. Having good feel for draw weight, being in a good spot mentally. Just all the little details, how important they are in the first few games,” Kennedy said.

“Sometimes, it’s easy coming to an event and being lackadaisical until you really need to, but you need to right from the beginning against these teams now.”

After the Player’s Championship, the next big test for Martin and Co. is the Trials. If they win that to return to the Olympics in 2014, the players could look back to the tribulations at the Edmonton Brier as a key factor in the evolution of the team.

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Kevin Martin rink hopes to take advantage of lessons learned during Brier run

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